Intro

Intro

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Fall 2018 Computer Science W4995 section 001

TOPICS IN COMPUTER SCIENCE

HACKING 4 DEFENSE

Solve complex technology problems critical to our National Security with a team of engineers, scientists, MBAs, and policy experts.

In a crisis, national security initiatives move at the speed of a startup yet in peacetime they default to decades-long acquisition and procurement cycles. Startups operate with continual speed and urgency 24/7. Over the last few years they've learned how to be not only fast, but extremely efficient with resources and time using lean startup methodologies. In this class student teams develop technology solutions to help solve important national security problems. Student teams take actual national security problems and learn how to apply the Lean launchpad andLean Startup principles, ("business model canvas," "customer development," and "agile engineering") to discover and validate customer needs and to continually build iterative prototypes to test whether they understood the problem and solution. Teams take a hands-on approach requiring close engagement with actual military, Department of Defense and other government agency end-users. Team applications required. Limited enrollment.

Taught by Professor Paul Blaer and Jason Cahill, Hacking for Defense™ is a university-sponsored class that allows students to develop a deep understanding of the problems and needs of government sponsors in the Department of Defense and the Intelligence Community. In a short time, students rapidly iterate prototypes and produce solutions to sponsors' needs.

This course provides students with an experiential opportunity to become more effective in their chosen field, with a body of work to back it up. For government agencies, it allows problem sponsors to increase the speed at which their organization solves specific, mission-critical problems.